Where do Kids Obtain their Steroids?

We are regularly asked where our kids get their hands on steriods. The answer is scary: steroids are exceptionally easy for kids to obtain. They are sold at virtually every public gym in the US, anywhere the “big guys” are working out. And, they are available over the Internet. My son Taylor was buying his steroids from a young punk at the YMCA!

Occasionally, as story like this comes across the wire. A story of a coach or trainer supplying their athletes with steroids. Thank goodness this is the exception to the rule.

Don

Mom Says H.S. Coach Gave Kid Steroids

By LIZ POTOCSNAK

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. (CN) – A high school football coach sold a boy steroids without telling him what the drug was, and then conspired with school administrators to keep the drug deal a secret, the student’s mother claims in Cumberland County Court. Tammy Butler says Stone Memorial High School assistant football coach Jim Wilson gave her son steroids after the season ended in the boy’s junior year. She says her 17-year-old boy asked about over-the-counter supplements and Wilson offered him pills he referred to as “supplements.” Butler says she paid for the drugs with a $140 check made out to Wilson, believing she was buying supplements to help her son. “Unbeknownst to Benjamin Dodd or his mother the ‘supplements’ were actually illegal steroids,” the complaint states. “Neither Benjamin Dodd or Tammy Butler knew they were obtaining or paying for anabolic steroids. Had they known, Benjamin Dodd would not have accepted or taken them. Tammy Butler certainly would not have paid for them. … It is believed other young men on the football team were approached about taking steroids.” After taking the pills, Benjamin Dodd ended up at the Crossville Medical Center, suffering from headaches, chest pains and violent mood swings, his mom says. In meeting arranged by the school’s resource officer, who found Dodd with pills at school, Wilson admitted to the officer, the assistant principal and principal that the pills he gave Dodd were steroids, according to the complaint. The mom claims that the principal, Janet Booker, “encouraged” her son “not to discuss the matter out of fear of media attention. Moreover, Benjamin Dodd asked if he could still play football and was advised by defendant [Scott] Maddox [the assistant principal] he may not be able to remain on the football team. The young man inferred that his silence was required to continue to play football,” according to the complaint. But as the boy’s symptoms persisted, he finally told his mother about the drugs and the meeting, she says. She says the official and the high school endangered her son, whom she continues to take to Vanderbilt Neurology Clinic for treatment. She demands punitive damages for governmental tort and negligence. She is represented by Randy Chaffin and Michael Giaimo of Cookeville, Tenn.